Good Friday News Dump Riles Keystone Supporters on the Hill

Reaction to news that the State Department would take more time to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project was swift and predictable.

“On April 18, 2014, the Department of State notified the eight federal agencies specified in Executive Order 13337 we will provide more time for the submission of their views on the proposed Keystone Pipeline Project,” the State Department said. “State Agencies need additional time based on the uncertainty created by the on-going litigation in the Nebraska Supreme Court which could ultimately affect the pipeline route in that state.”

The State Department sought to make clear that it would take time to review roughly 2.5 million public comments, but that the window for such comments wouldn’t be extended itself.

“The agency consultation process is not starting over. The process is ongoing, and the Department and relevant agencies are actively continuing their work in assessing the Permit application,” the State Department said.

The announcement of a delay played out in perfect news dump fashion: The news came on the afternoon of Good Friday through a conference call with Capitol Hill, multiple congressional sources confirmed.

“On a day when many Americans are observing Good Friday and preparing for Easter, the administration took the opportunity to quietly announce yet another Keystone delay despite the five successful environmental reviews of the energy project,” South Dakota GOP Sen. John Thune said in a statement.

As usual, criticism of the latest news was not partisan. A significant band of Democrats from energy-producing states support the pipeline development. That includes North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, who was one of the leaders on a recent letter to President Barack Obama seeking expedited review.

“Once again, we’re hearing more delays and more uncertainty over the Keystone XL pipeline,’ said Heitkamp. “It’s absolutely ridiculous that this well over five year long process is continuing for an undetermined amount of time. This most recent delay leaves everyone waiting in limbo – federal agencies, construction and energy workers and companies, state officials and Canada.”

Heitkamp then mentioned the possibility of working around the Obama administration.

“But because of this latest delay tactic by the Administration, I’ll continue to seriously consider other available options for approval,” Heitkamp said.

The oft-delayed Shaheen-Portman measure has long been the rumored vehicle for the Keystone vote.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has told reporters the bill’s on his agenda for the next work period, but a Reid aide said it was too soon to know if Keystone could be part of the amendment process for the measure.

Reid has consistently precluded the offering of contentious amendments on the floor, using procedural tools at his disposal as majority leader.

Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., said in her own statement that she planned a new push, saying she planned to use her gavel “to take decisive action to get this pipeline permit approved.”

“Today’s decision by the Administration amounts to nothing short of an indefinite delay of the Keystone Pipeline. This decision is irresponsible, unnecessary and unacceptable,” Landrieu said. “By making it clear that they will not move the process forward until there is a resolution in a lawsuit in Nebraska, the administration is sending a signal that the small minority who oppose the pipeline can tie up the process in court forever. There are 42,000 jobs, $20 billion in economic activity and North America’s energy security at stake.”

Democrats like Heitkamp and Landrieu are aligned with their Senate GOP counterparts on the pipeline issue.

“It is crystal clear that the Obama administration is simply not serious about American energy and American jobs. I guess he wasn’t serious about having a pen and a phone, either,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in his own statement.

“At a time of high unemployment in the Obama economy, it’s a shame that the administration has delayed the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline for years. Here’s the single greatest shovel-ready project in America — one that could create thousands of jobs right away – but the President simply isn’t interested,” the Kentucky Republican added. “Apparently radical activists carry more weight than Americans desperate to get back on the job. More jobs left behind in the Obama economy.”

I thought she was just a Rat. She’s one of the worst Democrats I’ve ever seen.

pitch1934

Sorry, I forgot to stress the last three letters. It should have read RepublicRAT.

snickering

Good One-Right on Point, HA HA HA

Lance Sjogren

If so then you should not mind replacing her with a Republican.

pitch1934

No, I would rather replace her with a real D.

drthomasedavis

By what stretch of the imagination does State have any say in this matter. The states involved are more than competent to administer the Keystone project. Get the bureaucrats out of the mix. The nation needs jobs not jargon and knee-jerk solutions.

twmmd

Landrieu already knew what Obama would say and she will say anything to get off the hook for being a consummate Obama supporter…..she is truly worthless to Louisiana and nothing but a mouth piece for Obama and not for Louisiana…….but of course she will feign disgust and likely Obama will make a very small positive decision just before Nov 2014 which in effect will be worthless but trumpeted up by her as something positive for Louisiana which it will not when the dust settles.

mabramso

Actually, I wonder if this doesn’t go a step farther. I think this might be entirely a political charade, in which the administration opposes Keystone, but the Democrats are setting Landrieu up to look like a savior in getting it into the energy bill and “forcing” Obama to accept it. Then it will look like she secured Keystone pipeline herself and fought against Obama doing it.

twmmd

That is exactly what I was suggesting…..another typical Obama scam….however it will not rub off the manner Landrieu has been a mouth piece for Obama….she PERSONALLY stated the same lie and deception that Obama pushed when she knew it wrong….thus she is no better than he and Louisiana will do better without such an Obama bower.

Sen Reid made his fortune how?

‎Obama has claimed the “Recovery” is being hampered by Republican opposition to his agenda. But job killing is Obama’s agenda. He is beholden to radical environmentalists.

BLM and EPA for a long time have been captured by this enviromadness mindset. Under people of both parties they do not want to allow any economic use. Or rather only want to let it be used by solar-powered boondoggles to line the pockets of people like Al Gore, Harry Reid, or their relatives. That’s different, building solar panels. That’s not like letting cattle wander around and nibble scrub – a use that dates to the 1870s.‎ That endangers turtles.

We really do need to eliminate whole departments of the federal government. Give Nevada to the Nevadans.

voltaic

Job killing? Do you know how many jobs the GOP and your painting buddy GWB created during their reign of terror? None. The weakest recovery on record. No go put your head in the sand and repeat Fox News talking points.

Scott Walker

“Reign of terrror?” Take two aspirin and go back to bed.

LouAnnWatson

sorry, this president owns the worst recovery since the great depression…

voltaic

Your analysis is like most GOP; bereft of data or circumstances. GOP and Bush were given a budget surplus and they turned it into a huge deficit. They took gas prices from $1.00 a gallon to $3.00 a gallon. They took America into two unfunded trillion # wars, they gave the rich two trillion dollar unfunded tax cuts, they gave pharma a trillion $ bonus with Medicare Part D that was unfunded, they created zero jobs during their reign of financial terror, they fought a war over fake WMDs that cost the lives of thousands of troops, they gave no bid contracts to Halliburton who turned around and killed US soldiers who took showers in their faulty facilities, GWB created fewer jobs in 8 years than Obama in 5 years. Need I go on? GWB left Obama in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression while the GOP had the best economy when GWB started his disastrous GOP reign in 2001! You people have the memory of fruit flies. And the GOP has done EVERYTHING to stop ANY action that would improve the economy. Obstruction and do-nothings are the GOP methods. Feed the rich and starve the poor is their call to arms.

JackSheet

the longer your rant the less convincing

at least it’s not all caps

you should switch to decaf

voltaic

You, as most GOP types, can’t dispute the facts I stated. You just stick your head in the ground and repeat one-line GOP talking points that have no basis in reality. I need to just stop coming to this site, since it is filled with nothing but GOP slogans that mean nothing.

You may want to see this to see how little Republicans are respected on economic issues.

Republican leaders in Congress received the lowest mark on record for either party (24%).

when Obama campaigned in 2008 he called McCain economically inept and said he was the man to fix the economy

he was still blaming Bush in 2012 and people like you foolishly reelected him

Its been six years and he and his comrades in the Democratic party own this lamest of recoveries in history

When does Obama finally own the economy his inept policies fostered? My guess is when the Republican elected in 2016 finally turns things around and you Kool Aid drinkers rush in and claim Obama’s policies finally worked

Credit Man

Dear Voltaic, Please seek professional medical help immediately!

I’m sorry you can’t let Bush go. He hasn’t been president for at least 6 years.

If the economy was going and we were experiencing full employment, Obama would be a savior not a skunk.

Kranky Old Guy

You open your rant with “Your analysis is like most GOP: bereft of data or circumstances….” Then you continue on blasting with one wrong statement after another after another, and all of them “…bereft of data or circumstances…” Pot meet Kettel”! Please cite your numbers and sources!

Alfred Beronio

voltaic…sorry, the famed budget “surplus” of Clinton is a smoke and mirrors exercise. It depends on how the books are kept and you just gotta know that the Clintons are experts at “keeping books”. Check it out. There are two accounting systems for the Feds. The numbers you’d like to quote are not there.

jcasteele

Uh, the “weakest recovery on record” started in the Obama administration and is still ongoing in its sixth year. Might want to update your calendar, dude.

http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

He can’t do that. The script says ‘Blame GOP and Bush’. If he goes off-script, he’ll be reprimanded or fired.

voltaic

GWB left Obama in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression while the GOP had the best economy when GWB started his disastrous GOP reign in 2001! You people have the memory of fruit flies. And the GOP has done EVERYTHING to stop ANY action that would improve the economy. Obstruction and do-nothings are the GOP methods. Feed the rich and starve the poor is their call to arms.

For two years you had a Democratic majority in Congress and a Democratic President. The GOP couldn’t stop the Democrats from implementing your version of heaven on earth.

But they knew that if they did, and it went pear-shaped (IE exploded in their face) it’d spell the end of the Democrats. Tread carefully! Don’t make too many changes, otherwise the blowback could be damaging!

So that lovely lie was cooked up that everything was GWB’s fault. Ignore the low unemployment rates until the Democrats got control of the Congress in 2006. Ignore the housing debacle where Barney Frank refused oversight. Just concentrate on BUSSSSH! and all would be well.

Now we’re 6 years into Obama’s run. He’s a stellar performer, isn’t he? That Stimulus sure saved the country, didn’t it? And his masterful Foreign Policy moves! Wow, isn’t he a wonder?

LOL. Well, things aren’t going all that well. We’re $17 trillion in debt, and the forecast is for the deficit to continue at Trillion dollar levels for the next decade. Our foreign relations are going wonderfully too, aren’t they? We’ve alienated our allies, sucked up to those who’d love to kick us in the teeth, and gotten a taste of the boot.

But that’s okay, because any day now Obama’s policies are going to kick in and peace is going to reign and the economy is going to turn around.

Yep, any day now.

Just keep believing… and never question whether what you believe is right. And for god’s sake, NEVER test your ideology against reality!

voltaic

It’s all Obamacare’s fault! Right…..Wars over fake WMD under GWB = 1 and trillions of debt and thousands of needless deaths. Wars over fake WMDs under Obama = 0.

Yes, blame Barney Frank and not the GOP who for 6 years watched a housing bubble form and said whoopie! GOP Alan Greenspan said there is no housing bubble.

Of course a couple years og Dem rule makes them the terrible healthcare boogie man when GOP had control of Congress for many more years and let the economy crash like it did back in the Great Depression. It’s like blaming Roosevelt for what Hoover created. That’s the GOP way.

http://abriefhistory.org MichaelKennedy

Bush inherited the Clinton recession and the 2000 bear market after the internet bubble popped. Not everyone is as clueless as you are.

voltaic

The Clinton recession?

How about this glorious Bush recession?

On 9/20/2010, the NBER announced that “the U.S. economy reached a trough in June 2009, making the 18-month recession that began in December 2007 the longest in the post-war period.”

That 2007 recession was caused by GOP complete rule of Congress from 2001-2007.

January 2001, implying the blame for the slowdown rested on President Clinton’s shoulders.

“When I took office, our economy was beginning a recession,” Bush said in a speech at a Mississippi high school. “Then our economy was hit by terrorists. Then our economy was hit by corporate scandals. But I’m certain of this: We won’t let fear undermine our economy and we’re not going to let fraud undermine it either.”

I’m sure that 9/11 and corporate scandals were Clinton’s fault too! And it had nothing to do with GOP being in control of congress from 1994-2008

Credit Man

Agaom. Voltaic, please seek non-Obamacare medical help immediately!

If we had a good economy you could lower your personal voltage to 110 instead of the 220 you seem to be running on.

JackSheet

yes those terrible days of 6.5% unemployment $1.85 gas

HenryC

We have less people working now than we had when Obama took over. Bush created a lot of jobs and had a good economy until the Democrats took over the legislature in 2006. That’s when things started going bad.

voltaic

You people are amazing in your lack of knowledge. Let’s say we discount the Dem years under Bush:

Rick Newman pointed out in January of 2013 for US News that in Bush’s first term, he created zero job growth, even before the Bush recession. “When Bush began his first term in January 2001, total nonfarm employment was 132.47 million. When his second term began four years later, it was 132.45 million, or effectively zero job growth.”

Newman continued the math, “From February 2001 to February 2005, the economy created 164,000 jobs, for a 0.1 percent gain during Bush’s first term. From February 2009 through December 2012, the economy created nearly 1.2 million jobs, a 0.9 percent improvement (under Obama)”

Facts are terrible things aren’t they…..

What I find hilarious is that GOP has run the House for 16 of 20 years the Senate for 14 of 20 years and you blame Democrats for everything. Amazingly clueless….

http://abriefhistory.org MichaelKennedy

Nice job with talking points, only yours are from the DNC. They are getting pretty old. Bush hasn’t been president for five years.

http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

Doesn’t matter – he’s got a script and that’s what’s important.
Reality be damned, he’s got a party line to follow!

Obamao, job killer

Obama’s policies make life harder for businesses large and small. The fact that we are seeing very modest job growth does not change that. Remember when Obama took credit for jobs “created or saved”? He should be getting the blame for all of the jobs he has smothered or aborted through his big-government policies of record tax and regulation increases.

YONATAN C

When will the senate finally pass the much needed unemployment extension bill in the senate, for the more than two million families that were affected by the loss of benefits late last December? For more than four months now, the Republican senate has dragged their feet, and has made delay after delay to postpone passing the bill, in the hopes of making it just go away. In the mean time, these millions of families have been ruined financially, having been evicted from their homes, having their homes foreclosed upon, having to file personal bankruptcy, and being made homeless. These workers had worked many years in their jobs, and have paid into the system, believing help would be there for them if ever they needed it. However, they’ve been made to feel like social leaches, and social parasites, for asking for what they’ve already paid into from their weekly pay. While the congress quickly passed a foreign aid package for the Ukraine, worth billions of tax payer’s dollars, nothing has been passed to help these struggling families on a total verge of economical collapse, facing homelessness for lack of income to pay their living expenses. These millions of families have been used my the political parties as “political leverage”, and as “bargaining chips” to further one another’s political agendas. These people are not lazy or unwilling to work. The majority are older Americans with families to support, and mortgages to pay. These people have worked all of their lives and just happen to find themselves in one of the worst recessions in many years. How can the Republican party claim to represent “family values”, while making every effort to kill the extension bill that would help these families in the senate? I hope that the American people will have our own ” American Spring” like in other countries, and take back our country from these self-promoting, self-righteous, ego=filled, career politicians. We need to bring back the ” public servant” back into fashion once again. These politicians in Washington have totally become out of touch with common people which makes up 99 percent of this country. Shame on the Republicans for causing so much grief and pain to these millions of families without unemployment benefits. The American voters will not forget that in the 2016 elections.

DJMiles

They won’t every time they get a step closer Obama and the Democrats do things to ensure that it don’t ever get passed…The Senate debated attaching the keystone to the unemployment bill then suddenly didn’t bill went to house and Boehner stated the ball is in Obama court witch meant they been waiting since 2011 for him to approve Phase 3 of Keystone and will not vote on extending unemployment unless he moves on Keystone witch they consider the fastest way to create jobs.Obama waited until Congress was out of town to announce that Keystone is off the table because many anti keystone groups are large campaign donors and their votes are crucial this November in attempting to hold the Senate Majority so keystone is guaranteed to be approved but not until after the mid term elections.
I could care less about the pipeline and was confident that a deal may be reached on unemployment but this now has me 100% sure that their will be no extension.Obama will continue to do the only thing he knows how to and that’s make things look better then they are.My state magically went from 6.9% unemployment in January to 6.0% in March that’s more then it dropped in the last 3 years…175,000 cut of in December from EUC labor participation rate down to 54% from 59% and welfare applications at record highs but non of the bad will be talked about in November only that the unemployment rate has went way down.

LouAnnWatson

how about letting projects like keystone proceed, creating jobs for americans to help them be self sufficient? unemployment benefits can’t go on forever. who would ever work again?

http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

You can’t allow the private sector to create jobs! There’s no guarantee they’d be the proper sort of jobs, going to the proper people, and (like the old line in Ghostbusters) the private sector expects RESULTS from people working!
/sarc, in case it wasn’t clear.

Zenny Marvell

Do you realize you really can make $5000
per week trading? I would have never believed it until I saw it for myself or I
started doing it. And that’s exactly what happened to me because now I’m making
that much money. You just need to know the right place to learn and where I
went to is a website called Gold Trading Academy, you should be able to find
them on Google or just search for them. Their support is the best I’ve ever
seen on any website before and they helped me to learn to trade, and it was
nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be.

Bildo

And your mom makes an extra $50 every weekend, lying on her back using this one weird trick…

rsubber

I’m a liberal progressive, I voted for President Obama twice. I’m getting sick of the apparent pattern of delaying tough decisions.

I want to see President Obama make the hard choices, and explain them to the American people. Force the Republicans to explain their opposition tactics.

Haha. You are a really smart person. After 6 years you are finally getting a little tired of Obama’s Socialist’Progressive crap? Well, let me tell you something fool. You don’t have the RIGHT anymore to oppose Obama’s rule. YOU are going to suffer along with the rest of the sensible Americans that voted against this American Quisling calling himself Obama. If you admit you supported Obama for 6 years, you are a mental defective and your opinion is worthless.

LouAnnWatson

he’s not tired of it, he wants more of it.

LouAnnWatson

“I want to see President Obama make the hard choices”? that is not possible

http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

I’m surprised it took you six years to get to this point. Didn’t you look at Obama’s record and see he’d NEVER made any hard choices? Had never been in a position of responsibility or leadership?

The man’s had his life handed to him, by people who were dazzled by how wonderful they were told he was. Why would you think he’d have any ability at all for the position he’s in?

Alan

Obama’s principal talent is that of being clever at campaigning for office. He hasn’t shown a lot of talent a governance – thus, much longer decision cycles for practically every major choice that has come to him. He probably can make hard choices, but very few in the years he has left as POTUS. If you want efficiency and effectiveness, better to leave it to the states on issues like the pipeline.

voltaic

Congress fights for corporate profits and demands swift action that benefit a few and ignore the millions of unemployed left to rot by a congress that can’t seem to decide what to do. Congress is again fighting for the wealthy and ignoring the millions of middle class unemployed families.

While fighting for corporations GOP is tragically ignoring millions of long-term unemployed – and that number is growing by 75,000 a week. That also includes more than 250,000 veterans who have lost extended benefits. I love the way GOP send these guys to needless wars and then abandon them when they return home.

310,000 jobs will be lost be NOT extending benefits and GDP takes a hit as well. So not only does this mindless GOP tactic damage millions of middle class families, it harms the economy. 2.3 million children lived with parents who were looking for work for more than six months in 2013. Seems GOP can easily ignore that damage as well.

Three months’ worth of job market data since the benefits program expired, shows no major job gain shift since the benefits program expired at the end of last year. And NO congress has ever ended extended benefits when long-term unemployment was so high. Congratulations GOP on harming so many. No get back to your taxpayer funded vacation.

LouAnnWatson

GOP, get back to your taxpayer funded vacation? you are willfully ignorant of your man in the white house. why do you type so many words that don’t mean anything? red senate 2014

Dan Wafford

Resistance to KXL is hypocrisy writ large. You opponents claim that your driving incentive is a cleaner planet, right? Well, Lucy, ‘splain this: much of the crude oil is currently being trucked and railed across America to Gulf Coast refineries. The diesel and diesel-electric exhaust pollution, loading/unloading spillage and leaking produce more pollution over time than even potential pipeline ruptures. The remainder of the crude is being or will be shipped overseas. Shipping = more pollution of the air and ocean. Think Exxon Valdez. The overseas refineries operate orders of magnitude dirtier than tightly-regulated US refineries. Again, MUCH more global pollution – all you’ve done is turn a SMALL POTENTIAL pollution in the US into a guaranteed LARGE ACTUAL pollution elsewhere.

http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

It’s not about what’s real, it’s about what they believe.
They don’t believe that pipelines are safe – and they ignore the 200,000+ miles of pipeline that already exist.
They’re massively ignorant, yet want to be thought of as the ‘saviors of the planet’ – despite them not knowing anything about what they’re trying to do. They simply think if they believe enough, they’ll do the right things – but they wouldn’t know the right things if it came up and bit them on the (appendage).

skhpcola

There are actually 2.5+ million miles of pipelines extant in the US. But that might be contingent on what your definition is. But 2.5+ million miles was the last figure that I read.

That’s ~1,000 times around the earth at the equator, but math is a funny thing. There are more ways to shuffle a standard deck of 52 cards than there are stars in the universe, but don’t try to convince a no-info leftist of that.

skhpcola

Mneh…100 times around the earth at the equator. Either way, it’s a sheepload of pipeline.

LouAnnWatson

“if you vote for obamacare, i’ll help you out when your election comes up” suckers! obama is a narcissist and only cares about what he wants to do today

OldHoya

I think critics are being unfair. Until the Administration (a) has a better handle on how much Tom Steyer and Hollywood greens are going to contribute; and (b) those campaign contribution checks actually clear, any approval of Keystone XL would be premature.

Kudos to the true believer commenters who managed to work in a “yeah but Bush was bad” meme in response to bi-partisan, majoritarian concerns about the rather obvious fact that the pipeline delay has prevented significant job-related benefits from accruing. Dear Leader is always watching and knows of your efforts and loves you. Defending Obama proves you must be virtuous and clever no matter how idiotic and/or cynical the particular Obama action under discussion may appear to the unenlightened. Forward!

HenryC

We will keep putting it off until we can find something wrong.

Lance Sjogren

Now that’s leadership for you. Avoid a controversial decision indefinitely in order to minimize the political fallout of deciding for or against.

http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

Looking at what little there is of Obama’s ‘record’, that’s what he always did.
Sucks we got an indecisive leader in a place where even the smallest decisions have great effects.

Rick Caird

Your error in thinking that Obama was ever a leader. Obama is a talker and a divider. That is all you are going to get.

Susan Charlene

There are pipelines all across this country. They are so much safer than train or vehicle transport. Pipelines require blue collar workers to build and maintain. I hear opponents say it amounts to 50 full time jobs. I don’t think they understand how a lot of our pipe fitters make a living. They build and repair and move from one project to another.

Texas and North Dakota aren’t big enough to house every blue collar worker in America.

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About #WGDB

Niels Lesniewski has covered the Senate for CQ Roll Call since January 2010, and more recently as a staff writer and resident procedure guru for Roll Call. Niels holds degrees in both government and theater but sometimes can't tell the difference between the two. @nielslesniewski